North Broadway Historic District

This six-acre district lies just north of Lebanon's commercial center and holds twenty-five buildings, most dating from the mid-nineteenth century. The grandest houses, mainly brick and originally single-family, line North Broadway. Smaller houses and duplexes stand along North Mechanic and East Warren Streets. The most common style is a vernacular form of Federal architecture, with long facades, brick construction, splayed lintels and Flemish bond. Greek Revival, Italianate, Gothic Revival and Colonial Revival buildings also appear. Construction began around 1840, when Lebanon was growing as a stagecoach stop and county seat, and when the Lebanon Academy and National Normal University operated nearby. Prominent businessmen and lawyers built the large North Broadway homes, while the smaller houses served working-class residents and students; 320-322 North Mechanic was once a girls' dormitory. An 1854 map shows the area already well built up. The district is a relatively unaltered collection of period residences, though commercial uses and demolition have encroached on its edges.